The Penguin Book of Exotic WordsPenguin Books, 1996 - 159 sider The unusually rich vocabulary of the English language is the result of new words from all over the world being freely assimilated. House, man, bread, and speak, among our most basic words, arrived with the Saxons, while the Vikings added law, egg, sister, and sky. From the 11th century onwards, new vocabulary was introduced from France and from classical Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Traders, explorers, and settlers enriched the English language further with words like alcohol, sofa, and candy from Arabic, canoe from Arawakan, and curry, shampoo, bungalow, and dungaree from the Indian subcontinent. All these and many other words are collected here. As well as exploring their often exotic source, there are also famous, unusual, or funny examples of their use, with entries arranged thematically. For anyone interested in the extraordinary richness of the English language, this highly original reference work is a must. |
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Side 71
... spell it ' pajamas ' . One must imagine this spelling when Groucho Marx recounts in the film Animal Crackers ( 1930 ) : ' One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas . How he got into my pajamas I'll never know . ' Two cold - weather ...
... spell it ' pajamas ' . One must imagine this spelling when Groucho Marx recounts in the film Animal Crackers ( 1930 ) : ' One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas . How he got into my pajamas I'll never know . ' Two cold - weather ...
Side 142
... spelling of the older puisne , an Old French word meaning ' later born ' ( puis + ne ) and hence ' junior and subordinate ' . In legal use , a puisne judge is one inferior in rank to the chief justices . The Anglicized spelling came to ...
... spelling of the older puisne , an Old French word meaning ' later born ' ( puis + ne ) and hence ' junior and subordinate ' . In legal use , a puisne judge is one inferior in rank to the chief justices . The Anglicized spelling came to ...
Side 151
... spelling of the initial letters of ' all correct ' when spelt ' orl korrect ' . ( According to some authorities , that was the way the then President Andrew Jackson used to spell it . ) In any case , the abbreviation was adopted as a ...
... spelling of the initial letters of ' all correct ' when spelt ' orl korrect ' . ( According to some authorities , that was the way the then President Andrew Jackson used to spell it . ) In any case , the abbreviation was adopted as a ...
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adjective Africa Algonquian American ancient animal antimacassar apparently Arabic Australia bird Britain British called Canterbury Tales Chaucer chiefly China Chinese cloth comes ultimately commented cotton course creature described desert Dictionary Dr Johnson drink Dutch early eighteenth century England English word Europe European existed in English fabric familiar fourteenth century gave George MacDonald Fraser German goes back Greek Greek word Guinea guinea-pig Hindi horse incubus India invented Irish island Italian kind King language later Latin Malay mean meant medieval Michael Flanders military modern nineteenth century Nowadays Old French one's originally Oxford particularly Penguin Books perhaps Persian pidgin Portuguese potato probably recently referred rhyming slang Roman Samuel Pepys sandwich Sanskrit seems sense seventeenth century Shakespeare sixteenth century soldiers someone sort South Spanish spelling succubus things Tod Sloan tree usually verb Victorian Wendy Cope West wind word comes word has existed write to Penguin wrote